Christie's International sold 144.4 million pounds ($284.5 million) of art last night in London, the highest ever for a European auction, boosted by a Claude Monet painting which sold for a artist record.

Monet's 1919 ``Le Bassin aux Nympheas'' sold for 40.9 million pounds, including fees, the auction house said.

A handout image provided to the media on Tuesday, June 24, 2008, shows a painting by Claude Monet from 1919 titled ``Le Bassin aux Nympheas''.

``So much for the Impressionist market being dead,'' said James Roundell, a London art dealer. ``If you can get good pictures and price them low, people will buy.''

A weak dollar and strong demand from Russian buyers have encouraged Americans to sell Impressionist works in London. The Monet was one of 17 works from the estate of the late J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, collectors from Columbus, Indiana. Their paintings hadn't been seen on the market for several decades.

Christie's Impressionist and modern art sale beat last year's 121.1 million pounds and its own presale top estimate of 127 million pounds, with 81 percent of the 81 lots sold.

Monet's 6-foot, 7-inch-wide canvas had been expected to sell for between 18 million pounds and 24 million pounds. It became the second-most expensive painting sold at a European auction, after the Peter Paul Rubens work ``The Massacre of the Innocents'' in 2002, bought by newspaper magnate Ken Thomson for 49.5 million pounds with fees at Sotheby's in London.

In May, Christie's sold Monet's 1873 canvas ``Le Pont du Chemin de Fer a Argenteuil'' in New York for $41.5 million.